The birth of the journal dates back to
1954 when C.A. Doxiadis and Jaqueline Tyrwhittmet in Delhi in connection with the first
U.N. International Symposium on Housing andCommunity Planning — Tyrwhitt was its
Director and Doxiadis a distinguishedparticipant. They agreed there was need
for a journal directly aimed at keeping architectsand planners in developing countries up
to date with relevant professional expertiseelsewhere in the world. The following
year they met again in London. Tyrwhitt hadjoined the faculty of Harvard University's
Graduate School of Design and Doxiadis hadcontracted to prepare a five year National
Housing Plan for the Government of Iraq. Hesaid he was prepared to finance a monthly
bulletin of information useful to his staffstationed in forty different locations
in the Middle East. Tyrwhitt agreed to produce itprovided it would also be sent to U.N.
housing and planning experts working indeveloping countries, as she pointed out
in a discussion with the current editor of theJournal in early 1980. Thus Ekistics
was born, though for its first two years it was calledTropical Housing and Planning Monthly
Bulletin. Its first number appeared in October1955, with reprints of articles from other
journals, and it gradually evolved into havingmostly original papers.

Mary Jaqueline Tyrwhitt,
1905-1983

Professor Mary Jaqueline Tyrwhitt (1905-1983)
was the first Editor of the Journal fromits initial issue in October 1955 to June
1969. She became co-editor with Gwen Bell fromJuly 1969 to December 1972, and on the
occasion of her “retirement" to the post ofConsultant Editor in January 1973 she
was said by C.A. Doxiadis to have been “anexacting collaborator and the most suitable
I could have selected to be the first editor ofEkistics.” After the death
of Doxiadis in June 1975 and the subsequent resignation ofGwen Bell as Editor in December 1977,
Jacky felt the need to be more actively involvedherself with P. Psomopoulos as Acting
Editor. He took over the editorship upon her deathin February 1983. The last issue that
she worked on was published as May/June 1983.The Sept./Oct.-Nov./Dec. 1985 double issue
was published in her memory, with aselection from her own writings, and contributions
from her friends and colleagues onher life and work.

The first forty years
of the journal, 1955-1995

The Journal was first issued in October 1955
as Tropical Housing & Planning Monthly Bulletin;

in 1956 it became Tropical Housing &
Planning MonthlyInformation Bulletin;

in October 1957 it became Ekistics: Housing
& Planning Abstracts;

in May 1959, it came out as Ekistics: Abstracts
of the Problems and Science of Human Settlements;

in January 1961, the journal appeared as Ekistics:
Reviews on the Problems and Science of Human Settlements; and finally

in January 1965 and for the last thirty years,
it has been published as Ekistics: The Problems and Science of Human
Settlements.

The material concerning Human Settlements
- "ekistics," which includes town andcountry planning, settlement geography,
urban economics, sociology, architecture,and other disciplines with a bearing on
human settlements - was taken primarily fromsources not easily accessible to most
planners, i.e. project reports, or articles inperiodicals not commonly read by them.
After obtaining clearance from author andpublisher, the articles were reproduced
either in full, or in abridged form.

For many years, articles in Ekistics
were exclusively “borrowed" ones. But as thepopularity of the journal increased, the
house bulletin became a full-scale monthlyperiodical sold on subscription.
It started being printed (at Doxiadis' own printing outfitin Athens), originally with a harder black
and white cover, and later with a cover in color.As the Journal's fame grew, original articles,
solicited and unsolicited, were added to thereprints. Soon, these original pieces,
many specially written for Ekistics by experts ofinternational standing, displaced the
older “borrowed” material. Issues devoted tospecial subjects also increased in frequency,
and for many years now every issue isdevoted to a special subject.

Today, the journal circulates in 140 countries,
in most cases on subscription, but it is alsofrequently exchanged with periodicals
published by other organizations. For almost all itslife, Ekistics has had to be subsidized
- by C.A. Doxiadis himself, by Doxiadis Associatesand by the Athens Center of Ekistics,
which has been its owner and publisher since theearly 1960s, and occasionally with the
help of grants from third parties such as the FordFoundation, or raised through the efforts
of distinguished members of the World Societyfor Ekistics. In a few cases, guest editors
undertook special issues, always in closecollaboration with the editors.

The journal is now regarded internationally
as one of the main sources of informationnot only on the work of the Athens Center
of Ekistics (especially its research effort andthe outcome of its conferences) but on
all aspects of human settlements from a widespectrum of sources the world over.